email to client that’s feeling down about a project…
Below is something I wrote to a client in the thick of a project. He wrote to me, he’s feeling down about how the songs sound, it seemed to me like he was frustrated with the progress, kind of thinking about bagging it all, and here’s what I wrote back to him. Fortunately, it was perceived by the client that it was a positive message, that I was on his side, that the progress of a project is often hard to guage when you’re in the thick of it.
Dear Client (name removed for decency sake),
The mixes are rough, there’s a lot that can still happen to the songs, and, like you said, you may be too close to it.
Your best bet, IMHO, is to record basic tracks as well as you can, arrange as well as you can, mix as well as you can, master it, done, move on. Next project.
The problem is, it’s your song(s), there is emotional investment, time, energy, money, and, mistakes, because no one gets it perfect. No one. I like to listen to the U2 cd, “How to dismantle an atomic bomb”, there are mistakes all through it, but you don’t notice or care, it has the energy and emotion to pull it through, and that is the only thing the public will hear or feel. The sound of the ukelele won’t matter, the mix of the drums wont matter, the fullness won’t matter.
This is your first time doing this, don’t demand perfection the first time, because you won’t get it, it’s too much to demand of yourself. Your next set of tunes will be better, the ones after that even better, etc… One of my favorite quotes is a journalist raving to Dizzy Gillespie how great he was, how easy he made it look. Dizzy says to him, says, “man, ain’t nothin easy”. It all takes lots of work, time, and everyone struggles at the beginning, and continues to struggle. If you expect perfection from yourself, you’ve tied your own hands, while asking for a hand.
I’m not saying to not keep aiming for perfection, but give yourself a break, this is you heart and soul you’re putting out there, making music is an enormously wide, nebulous apprenticeship that takes a mountain of time and work. You need to allow yourself slack, everything is fine, you’ve got 3 great tunes, the core of these are good and sound, the rest is learning.
Talk to you soon,
Steve
I wrote this email as much for me as for anyone else. We are always our own worst critics, and there’s no need for it. Ok, there is a need to better yourself, to self-check, to get help, to make sure you’re doing the best you can. Maybe the lesson here is to not hit yourself. It’s hard enough to rip your heart out of your body and display it to complete strangers, don’t make it worse by beating yourself with a bloody, bodyless heart. That’s gross. Give yourself a break. After you’ve made the commitment to record your music, the rest will somehow fall into place.
End of sermon #245.
